Any Motofone F3 Experts in the house?

[jmolayal]

Just got a new motofone F3 direct from India. I popped in my SIM card for Cingular, and get no signal strength. Same result with a current Tmobile Sim card. I can see phone numbers stored on the card, but when I dial any of them I get some busy tones and the error indicator?

Anyone know what might be wrong? I'd love some help. Posted on Howardforums too, but haven't heard back. Thanks for any tips!

PS Its not the SIM pin. I've set and entered it. No impact....

- Jaison

 

[aphex]

Its Dual Band GSM 1800 MHZ and 900 MHZ

Does your area use one of those bands?

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: aphex
Its Dual Band GSM 1800 MHZ and 900 MHZ

Does your area use one of those bands?

my sources say no



OP would need at least a tri-band, preferably a quad-band phone (don't think the F3 has quad band, but there are some tri-band on ebay, iirc))

 

[aphex]

Actually, dosen't US GSM only run on 850/1900?

 

[jmolayal]

Ahh crap.. So you guys are saying that this phone can't be used in the US at all?

 

[Mark R]

Yup - that's it.

The Indian Motofone F3 supports standard GSM frequencies only (900 and 1800 MHz). The US uses non-standard GSM frequencies (850 and 1900 MHz).

While most GSM phones are Tri-band or Quad band (supporting a mixture of US and rest-of-world bands), it looks like this feature has been left out of the motofone in order to keep costs down.

There is some debate as to whether a tri-band motofone is available - this was in the original specs, but there are reports that this feature was dropped, or used in only a very limited number of phones.

A US compatible motofone is set to be launched in the US soon.

 

[jmolayal]

Well shoot...

Anyone out there wanna buy a Motofone F3? Cool phone.. Wish I could use it.

Thanks for the info guys. I appreciate it.